Alumni and friends who have been selected by the Alumni Association Awards Committee to receive Alumni Association Awards for distinguished achievement, exceptional service, and pursuing paths in the spirit of Carleton are recognized each year during Reunion Convocation. Varsity athletes of distinction who have been selected by the ‘C’ Club Board are inducted into the ‘C’ Club Hall of Fame during Reunion weekend as well.
A. David Gordon ’56 • Distinguished Achievement
On a national and hyperlocal level, A. David Gordon ’56 has shaped generations of journalists with his deep commitment to enlightened, ethical reporting and teaching. Gordon graduated from Carleton as a government major and went on to earn a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and a master’s degree in political science and a PhD in mass communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His career spanned 30-plus years in academia, starting at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. It included the University of Miami, where he headed the Department of Communication while leading its transition to the School of Communication and then serving as its acting dean. Later he chaired programs at Emerson College and finally at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He is the senior author of the mass media textbook Controversies in Media Ethics and has written extensively on confidentiality in journalism.
In retirement Gordon lives in Altoona, Wisconsin, and is perhaps more committed than ever to advancing the field of journalism. He has been a board member and is a past president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, where he focused on strengthening the relationship between weekly newsrooms and the academic world. He also led the development of an ongoing research competition aimed at addressing issues confronting small community newspapers. And, seeing a need for a strong local nonprofit news platform, Gordon helped to create the Chippewa Valley Post, an online source which he now edits. In keeping with his passion for teaching and mentoring future journalists, Gordon creates internships and paid positions at the CV Post for local students.
Gordon is also a dedicated alumnus and Carleton parent (daughter Debora Gordon is a member of the Class of ’84), and took a leading role in convincing the college that there should be normal class participation in planning reunions beyond the 55th.
Pearl Lam Bergad ’66 • Distinguished Achievement
A biology major from Carleton and a well-respected molecular biologist at the University of Minnesota, Pearl Lam Bergad ’66 is perhaps better known for her accomplishments in pursuing world peace and mutual understanding through music. Her first major effort at promoting historical understanding and compassion was 2001’s Hún Qiáo: A Concert of Remembrance and Reconciliation. Translated as Bridge of Souls, the concert, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, attempted to heal wounds of World War II in East Asia by commissioning new works from renowned international composers—from China, Korea, Japan, and the United States—and showcased cellist Yo-Yo Ma. An accomplished pianist herself, Bergad believes that music can build bridges among people who long for peace. Her efforts to shepherd this production, from conception to world premiere, earned her recognition by President George W. Bush, who described Bergad as a “quiet hero” volunteering to improve her community.
As the volunteer executive director of the Chinese Heritage Foundation in Minneapolis, in 2008 Bergad also led the creation of A Passage to China, a two-day annual cultural event at the Mall of America attended by thousands of Minnesotans and international visitors. Her next goal was even larger: to create an operatic adaptation of the epic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber and introduce English speakers to China’s rich literary tradition. Her transformative work to secure the San Francisco Opera, enlist an artistic team, and cultivate donors for this project culminated in the 2016 world premiere by San Francisco Opera to worldwide acclaim. Dream of the Red Chamber has since been performed in Hong Kong, Beijing, Changsha, and Wuhan.
Bergad, who also served on the board of directors of both the Chinese Senior Citizens Society and the American Composers Forum, is the recipient of the College of Biological Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Asian Pacific Minnesotans.
Faye Knowles ’71 • Exceptional Service
Valuing reliability, Faye Knowles ’71 has been an unfaltering volunteer for the Alumni Annual Fund and the Class of 1971’s reunions for close to three decades. She has served the annual fund in numerous capacities, including assistant class agent, class agent, and leadership solicitor; in each of her years as a class agent, she tried to reach out to more classmates and cherish both the old and new acquaintances that resulted.
Similarly, from her 25th reunion on she has been a member or chair of multiple reunion committees, including the program committee, planning committee, gift committee, and outreach committee. She has also been a co-chair for her 45th and 50th reunions. Over the past year, planning a major reunion during the coronavirus pandemic has been challenging, yet Knowles has successfully navigated much uncertainty and social limitations. As a liaison between the leadership reunion planning committee and the gift committee, Knowles brought helpful insights to discussions about how to communicate effectively with classmates on the sensitive subject of giving thanks to her many years of experience with fundraising for the annual fund. Reliably, Knowles is known to find ways to connect with classmates in ways that reflect the Class of ’71, from writing personal notes to making phone calls to hosting a special 70th birthday party for classmates when many were approaching that milestone.
Knowles graduated from Carleton as an English major and holds a JD from the University of Minnesota Law School. In addition to her roles as alumna and volunteer with the college, she is also a parent: her daughter, Emily Muirhead McAdam, is a member of the Class of ’08.
Knowles lives in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Beth Lewis ’71 • Exceptional Service
For 50 years Beth Lewis ’71 has been a steadfast Carleton supporter. In the early 1970s, she was one of the first staff members for Carleton’s new Career Center (then called the Office of Student Futures), where she proposed establishing a career exploration program that has now grown into the popular externships program. Her career in human resources management led to further volunteering with the Career Center as a career guide.
Lewis is one of just eight Carleton alumni to have served two terms on the Alumni Council. Throughout her terms she showed insightful commitment to inclusion as a member of the travel committee by advocating for more domestic or lower-cost Alumni Adventure trips to make the experience accessible for more alumni and as a member of the nominations committee by encouraging the Board to re-examine the guidelines for its Alumni Association Awards to be as broad and equitable as possible through refining standards regarding community service and non-professional pursuits.
With a focus on connecting her classmates with one another and the college, Lewis has also volunteered for the Alumni Annual Fund and reunion planning. She has played a part in each of her reunions since 1996, currently serving as co-chair of her 50th reunion program committee and finding innovative ways to celebrate a virtual Reunion. With the outreach committee, she helped create and develop a monthly series of virtual programs to provide a forum for class-wide discussion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lewis, an English major at Carleton, earned an M.S. degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as a participant in the 1988 Sloan Fellows Program. She is a recipient of the Lofgren Business Fellowship from Carleton. She lives in Roseville, Minnesota and enjoys summers at a cabin in Ely, Minnesota.
Susan Coen Mendelson ’71 • Exceptional Service
For almost a half century, Sue Coen Mendelson ’71 has helped shape the Carleton community and its future. She has volunteered for club events and reunion planning and Alumni Annual Fund fundraising—important roles that nonetheless take a back seat to her impressive 48 years as an Alumni Admissions Representative and 20 years as an admissions reader. Mendelson has interviewed hundreds of prospective students and read thousands of student applications for Carleton, bringing the keen perspective of a high school counselor to her work, and served as team leader for AAR volunteers in the greater Pittsburgh area for 33 years. In 1997 the Office of Admissions asked her to join its inaugural Alumni Admissions Board for a three-year term; she ended up extending that term to four years. During her tenure she was known for innovating ways the AAR Board could interact with other alumni groups, and throughout her years representing Carleton at college fairs (even standing in for Dean of Admissions Paul Thiboutot once) and planning events for Carleton-bound applicants and their parents, Mendelson was hailed for successfully recruiting countless talented students.
In addition to her volunteer support, Mendelson and her husband, Bob Mendelson ’71, are members of the Joseph Lee Heywood Society and have contributed financial support to Carleton as well. In 2020 they created the S. Robert and Susan Coen Mendelson Endowed Scholarship Fund to help first-generation and low-income students access a Carleton education.
Mendelson graduated from Carleton as a sociology major and went on to earn a master’s of education and a master’s of social work from the University of Pittsburgh. She was named Pennsylvania High School Counselor of the Year by the Pennsylvania School Counselor Association in 1996. She and Bob live in Allison Park, Pennsylvania.
Ruth Mattern ’71 • Distinguished Achievement
In 50 years since graduating from Carleton as a philosophy major, Ruth Mattern ’71 has had distinguished careers in both philosophy and ophthalmology. She earned a PhD in philosophy from Princeton University in 1975, and for several years she taught and published on the history of philosophy, philosophy of science, and medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania and Rice University. In 1985 she resigned from her tenured position at Rice to focus on medical studies at Harvard Medical School, where she earned her MD in 1989.
After residency and fellowship training in ophthalmology, Mattern was drawn to serving the underserved. She joined medical missions to Nicaragua, India, and Nigeria, where she performed cataract extractions and other eye surgeries. She continued work with the underserved during 15 years as a U.S. Public Health Service ophthalmologist serving Native Americans of the Navajo, Hopi, and Southern Paiute tribes. For years she was the only eye surgeon, or sometimes one of a few ophthalmologists, on the sprawling Navajo reservation, stretching 27,000 square miles from Arizona into New Mexico and Utah. Rural patients often lacked running water and utilities, and due to geographic, financial, and cultural barriers, many patients did not seek treatment until their eye problems were very advanced. Mattern’s reputation for low complication rates and an exceptionally high level of care earned her high praise. During her time in medicine, she continued some ties with the philosophy community, giving some lectures on philosophy and organizing biennial national conferences.
While living on the Navajo reservation, Mattern adopted two toddlers, a girl and a boy, from an orphanage in China. In 2011, she returned to her hometown in New York to care for her mother and provide better schools for the children. There she returned to academia by joining the faculty of the State University of NY at Buffalo. Mattern remains dedicated to helping the underprivileged, working in the inner city office of the Ross Eye Institute rather than suburban satellite offices, and supervising the ophthalmology residents at the Erie County Medical Center. Though the children graduated in 2020 from the same high school where Mattern had graduated, she could not persuade them to attend Carleton College, and instead they are college students at Northern Arizona University and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Tom Stehn ’71 • Distinguished Achievement
In playing an essential role in the recovery of the endangered whooping crane, Tom Stehn ’71 has put his Carleton biology major to good use. After earning a master’s of science degree in wildlife science from the University of Montana, Stehn joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where he worked for 32 years. In addition to his duties as a refuge biologist, in 1997 he was also named U.S. whooping crane coordinator and led efforts between the Aransas Wildlife National Refuge in Texas (where whooping cranes spend the winter) and Canada (where the cranes breed) to more than quadruple numbers of this almost-extinct species. Noted for his diligent research, regular aerial surveys, and data collection, Stehn has published 17 scholarly works, including the International Recovery Plan for the whooping crane, and his methods have provided a model for conservationists worldwide—particularly in west Asia, where Stehn’s model for whooping cranes was used to restore flocks of the critically endangered Siberian crane.
After retiring, Stehn’s dedication to saving the whooping cranes continued, as he was called to testify in a 2011 federal trial concerning rights to fresh water. The data he provided demonstrated that the deaths of 23 cranes were linked to water withdrawals from the Guadalupe River, resulting in a landmark victory for conservationists. As one nominator writes, this testimony not only ensured the future of the whooping cranes but also improved water law and perhaps even impacted the attitudes of those responsible for water in Texas.
Stehn is currently a board member of the Whooping Crane Conservation Association and has received numerous honors for his conservation work, including the 2008 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Recovery Champion Award. Stehn and his wife, Lorraine Stehn ’72, live in McAllen, Texas.
Joe Shapiro ’75 • Distinguished Achievement
As one of America’s leading investigative journalists, Joe Shapiro ’75 has impacted national policy and given voice to people often marginalized by society. An American Studies major at Carleton, Shapiro earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and embarked upon a career that included positions at U.S. News & World Report and National Public Radio. He was one of the first national reporters to cover the disability civil rights movement and his prize-winning book, No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, remains widely read and assigned in disability studies courses.
As one of America’s leading investigative journalists, Joe Shapiro ’75 has impacted national policy and given voice to people often marginalized by society. An American Studies major at Carleton, Shapiro earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and embarked upon a career that included positions at U.S. News & World Report and National Public Radio. He was one of the first national reporters to cover the disability civil rights movement and his prize-winning book, No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, remains widely read and assigned in disability studies courses.
As a member of NPR’s first-ever investigative unit, Shapiro covered major stories such as the failure of colleges and universities to punish on-campus sexual assaults, which helped lead to the reform laws passed by the Obama administration; the convictions of parents and caregivers falsely accused of killing children, which led to the prison release of one Texas man and the commutation of a California woman’s sentence; the creation of modern-day debtors’ prisons through court fees imposed on those who cannot pay; the use of double-cell solitary confinement and the rising rates of violence when two prisoners are kept in one small cell; and the epidemic of sexual assault of people with intellectual disabilities.
Accolades for Shapiro’s work include journalism’s highest honors: He has received the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, the George Foster Peabody Award, the George Polk Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award.
Shapiro continues to work in Washington D.C. as an investigative reporter for NPR, where he is a mentor to young journalists and always happy to take calls from Carleton students interested in a career in journalism.
Mark S. Diamond ’76 • Distinguished Achievement
Since graduating from Carleton as a Judaic studies major, Mark Diamond ’76 has become widely respected for his ability to bring people together through interfaith dialogue. In 1982 he earned his master’s degree and rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he later earned an honorary doctor of divinity.
After serving as a congregational rabbi on both coasts for several decades, Diamond’s religious life and career turned toward social justice and interfaith relations as he became the executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. He organized a group of pastors, rabbis, and church members to rebuild homes following Hurricane Katrina’s destruction; spearheaded a group meeting with Homeland Security officials to advocate for a path to citizenship; and led a delegation of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders to the Vatican highlighted by an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. He also developed collaborative projects with the Fuller Theological Seminary, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of LA, the United Methodist Church, and World Vision International.
Highly respected for organizing talks and events among Jewish, Catholic, evangelical Christian, Muslim, and Latter-day Saint groups, in 2020 Diamond co-edited the book, Understanding Covenants and Communities: Jews and Latter-day Saints in Dialogue, and co-authored the forthcoming book, Understanding Our Jewish Neighbors.
The impact of Diamond’s career has also reached countless young people through his additional work in higher education. Currently a senior lecturer in Jewish thought, interfaith relations, and Israel studies at Loyola Marymount University and a professor of practical rabbinic at the Academy for Jewish Religion California, Diamond has lectured at Brigham Young University, Pepperdine University, Fuller Theological Seminary, Baylor University, and Mount St. Mary’s College. A resident of Los Angeles, Diamond also served two terms as president of the Los Angeles Council of Religious Leaders.
Warren H. Maruyama ’76 • Distinguished Achievement
As one of the most accomplished international trade lawyers in the United States, Warren Maruyama ’76 has significantly impacted U.S. trade policy throughout the past three decades. Maruyama joined the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), a cabinet-level agency in the Executive Office of the President, in 1983, working on the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement, as well as international trade disputes. In 1989, he was named Associate Director for International Economic Policy on the White House Policy Development staff under President George H. W. Bush, where he participated in the negotiation of NAFTA, the Uruguay Round, and the creation of the World Trade Organization. Maruyama returned to the USTR as General Counsel under President George W. Bush and proved his ability to find common ground between political parties as he helped secure an agreement between the Bush Administration and House Democratic Congressional leadership to address a decade-long impasse over the role of labor and environmental standards in U.S. free trade agreements. He also had a hand in negotiating free trade agreements with Peru, Korea, Colombia, and Panama, and launched 5 successful WTO disputes on behalf of the United States against China.
Interspersed with government service, Maruyama is also a partner at the world’s 11th largest law firm, where he continues to advise clients on international trade and co-chairs the firm’s Asian-American Affinity Group. He has been honored for his pro bono work with Asian American and Latino civil rights groups and has served on the Board of Governors of the Japanese-American National Museum, including advising the museum during a successful campaign to secure designation of World War II Internment Campus for Japanese Americans as National Historic Landmarks.
A history major at Carleton, Maruyama earned a JD from Cornell University and now lives in Washington D.C. He and his wife have two children, including Hana Maruyama ’12.
Meg Roggensack ’76 • Distinguished Achievement
Since graduating from Carleton as a history major, Meg Roggensack ’76 has become one of the world’s preeminent human and labor rights advocates. Her work with nonprofit organizations and multi-stakeholder initiatives has developed and strengthened human and labor rights standards globally, particularly during her tenure on the board of directors of the Fair Labor Association—which includes 60 corporate members such as Nike, Syngenta, and Nestle. Under the Obama administration, Roggensack served on a task force to write industry guidelines to eliminate child and forced labor in imported agricultural products. She has worked to advance corporate respect for human rights at several nonprofit organizations, including Human Rights First, The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable and Free the Slaves, where she helped secure passage of California’s landmark Transparency in Supply Chains Act to counter human trafficking. She also helped form an international code of conduct and oversight mechanism for the private security provider industry.
In addition to her global impact today, Roggensack is helping to train her field’s future leaders: as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School, she co-developed and continues to teach one of the first courses on business and human rights law, and she founded and co-directs the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, with more than 350 members teaching human rights courses worldwide.
In the midst of Roggensack’s work to serve the global community, her husband, Michael Janik ’76, was diagnosed with and succumbed to ALS. Roggensack devoted her energy to helping found the Robert Packard Center for ALS at Johns Hopkins University. Her organizational and outreach skills helped eliminate Medicare waiting periods for disability payments for ALS patients, and her contributions as the Packard Center’s longest-serving board member continue to improve the world’s understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.
Roggensack holds a JD from George Washington University and is a past trustee of Carleton. She lives in Washington D.C.
David Kaatrud ’81 • Distinguished Achievement
For over 30 years, David Kaatrud ’81 has been hailed as a visionary leader and innovative strategist in the international humanitarian and development sectors. After graduating from Carleton as a political science major, Kaatrud began his career with CARE, working with refugees in Sudan and war-affected populations in Mozambique. He then joined the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the World Food Programme (WFP), in East Africa. He soon became Global Chief of Logistics, deploying to numerous crises and conflict zones in ex-Yugoslavia, Somalia, Kosovo, and East Timor and oversaw major logistics operations in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Kaatrud has been instrumental in launching coordinated humanitarian efforts that have since become reputable, core structures in the sector. He launched the UN Joint Logistics Center, which later developed into the Logistics Cluster, and managed its response for the Indian Ocean Tsunami and during the post 9/11 conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Later, as Director of Assessment & Analysis, he introduced new assessment techniques and methods, which included co-leading the UN’s efforts in the use of GIS technologies.
Beyond WFP, Kaatrud served as OCHA’s Coordination & Response Director in the UN’s HQ in New York, with a major role in coordinating UN humanitarian activities for various crises, including the Haiti Earthquake.
In 2010, he rejoined WFP as Director of Emergencies and continued coordinating global crisis responses, including in Syria. More recently, as Regional Director in Asia, Kaatrud initiated ground-breaking WFP support to disaster operations in the Pacific. coordinated the 2015 earthquake response in Nepal, and recently led WFP’s efforts in the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh. Through his work with WFP, where he is currently the Global Director of Programme, for both humanitarian and development action, overseeing WFP’s Peace Office, Kaatrud’s impact has been monumental. In 2019, WFP assisted 97 million people in 88 countries and received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kaatrud holds two master’s degrees from Columbia University (International Affairs/Economic Development) and MIT (Urban Planning). He lives in Rome, Italy, with his wife and three children.
John E. Schlifske ’81 • Distinguished Achievement
John E. Schlifske ’81 is known for leading with vision and purpose. After graduating from Carleton as an economics major and earning an MBA in finance and accounting from Northwestern University, Schlifske joined Northwestern Mutual in 1987 as an investment specialist. His hard work and vision led him to a number of executive roles within the organization and, ultimately, to his current role as chairman, president, and CEO. Under Schlifske’s leadership, the company has grown to more than $2T of life insurance protection in place, and is an investment leader with a combined $500 billion invested in company and client assets. Schlifske is lauded for his long-term strategy to drive the growth, competitiveness, and relevance of the company – including a significant digital and client experience transformation designed to help its clients become more financially secure. In 2020, the company experienced record business results even amidst the global pandemic – welcoming a record number of new clients and announcing a record $6.2B dividend payouts for policy-owners.
Schlifske has also driven significant cultural change within the organization – introducing a long term strategy for diversity and inclusion along with a platform to recruit, retain, and advance women within the company. As a result, the company has seen significant growth in the representation of women and persons of color across the organization. He also commissioned and chairs the Sustained Action for Racial Equity Task Force to fight racism, prejudice, and discrimination with a bold and long-term commitment.
A dedicated community leader, Schlifske has been very involved in his hometown of Milwaukee, including a focus on elevating K-12 education, catalyzing an effort to make the city a tech hub, and leading a turnaround of the Milwaukee Public Museum. He is currently championing the museum’s move into a new building, the largest cultural project in Wisconsin’s history.
John and his wife Kim are dedicated parents to their six children, and can often be found on the sidelines of youth sporting games or enjoying the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
Sherry M. Wren ’81 • Distinguished Achievement
Globally renowned for her surgical expertise and humanitarianism, Sherry Wren ’81 is an inspirational and powerful force for change. Currently a Professor and Vice-Chair of Surgery and Director of Global Surgery at Stanford University, Wren specializes in open and robotic surgical treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. Outside of the US she is dedicated to improving surgical care and access for patients in lower-resourced areas and conflict zones, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. Her work in countries such as Sudan, Cameroon, and Zimbabwe led to her appointment as the first North American council member of the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa and the first “She for She” award from Women in Surgery Africa.
In her role at Stanford, she developed a program integrating her institution with the surgical training program at the University of Zimbabwe that promoted faculty and trainee exchanges for bidirectional education and research. Inspired by her example and work at their school, a group of female medical students at the University of Zimbabwe formed a surgery interest group for women. “It may be impossible to describe how Dr. Wren has changed the trajectory of many medical trainees in Zimbabwe,” notes a former University of Zimbabwe medical student.
Aside from her direct work with Africa, Wren also designed the premiere humanitarian surgery course, “International Humanitarian Aid Skills,” which has trained hundreds of health professionals on providing surgical care in resource-limited environments. Her efforts, along with her landmark book Operation Ebola, which set guidelines for treating surgical conditions following the 2014 Ebola outbreak, have truly changed global healthcare. A biology major at Carleton, Wren earned her MD at Loyola University. She is a member of the American Surgical Association and was the first woman elected president of both the Pacific Coast Surgical Association and the Halsted Society. She lives in Palo Alto, California.
Carol A. Barnett ’86 • Exceptional Service
With more than 30 years of service as a Carleton trustee, Carol A. Barnett ’86 has likely touched—and enhanced—every aspect of the college. Following her graduation as an economics major, Barnett was asked to join the Board of Trustees as a young alumni trustee, where it was quickly apparent that her thoughtful insight and advice merited an extended term. She has now served on the board every year since 1988 (with a short break in 2014) and has chaired virtually every committee. In recent years she’s been an instrumental member of the core committee for the Every Carl for Carleton campaign, helping raise more than $400 million to support college priorities, and she is currently the vice chair of the Board and a member of the presidential search committee.
As one nominator writes, over the course of her career Barnett has thrived as “a successful Black woman in the inner leadership circle at Carleton, a thought-leader in global med-tech marketing, and an angel for the creative arts and new ventures in the Midwest.” Carol has long encouraged nurturing friendships and making new connections within the Carleton community.
In addition to serving on the Board, Barnett has worked as an Alumni Annual Fund volunteer for nearly 30 years. She has been extraordinarily generous in her own giving to Carleton and is often a catalyst for inspiring generosity in others by providing funding for philanthropic challenges. She also endeavors to make sure all voices are heard, including alumni who care deeply about the college but disagree with an action or policy. And for many years, she has been a caring mentor for many young volunteers and alumni, particularly within the multicultural alumni community.
Barnett holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in Evanston, Illinois.
David Wright Faladé ’86 • Distinguished Achievement
Throughout his published works of fiction and nonfiction, David Wright Faladé ’86 has made invaluable contributions to literature on race, identity, and the mixed nature of America. After earning his MFA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Wright Faladé devoted years to researching and writing Fire on the Beach: Rediscovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers, which brings to light the forgotten story of the only Black Life-Saving Service crew (a precursor to the U.S. Coast Guard). The book was a New Yorker notable selection and named one of the best books of 2001 by the St. Louis Dispatch. A later book, Away Running, was hailed as an outstanding international book by the U.S. Section of the International Board on Books for Young People. Wright Faladé also wrote the screenplay for Rescue Men, a documentary film describing the Pea Island legacy, and has published stories and essays in the New Yorker, Kenyon Review, and The Village Voice (as well as the Carleton Voice).
Currently a creative writing professor at the University of Illinois-Urbana, Wright Faladé is noted for treating “all of his students with grace,” and has made the university’s List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent year after year. This February he won the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He was also selected to be the Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, for the academic year 2012-22. His latest book, Nigh-on a Brother, will be published in 2022.
Beyond teaching the next generation of American writers, Wright Faladé’s impact on the world is also seen in an unusual way: In 2013 the U.S. Coast Guard asked him to come up with a motto for its newly commissioned ship, the USCG Richard Etheridge. His contribution now sails the Atlantic.
With accolades including a previous Fulbright Fellowship at the Universidade de Sao Paolo in Brazil—as well as playing professional American football for a stint in Paris—the former Carleton French major truly exemplifies distinguished liberal arts achievement.
Daniel G. Lugo ’91 • Distinguished Achievement
As a former first-generation college student, Daniel Lugo ’91 has advocated for under-represented populations at every institution he’s served—including Carleton. After earning a JD from the University of Minnesota and a decade working in entertainment law, Lugo rededicated his career to higher education and returned to Carleton to work in the admissions and development offices. As one letter of support notes, Lugo’s brilliant talent soon attracted national attention, and in 2011 he became dean of admission at Franklin and Marshall College. Here he led efforts to develop the college’s Next Generation Initiative, a multidimensional effort that tripled the enrollment of low-income students, increased financial aid, built partnerships in underserved communities, and implemented structures of support and mentoring for students. Thanks to his leadership, Franklin and Marshall was recognized as one of the “Most Economically Diverse Top Colleges” by The New York Times College Access Index, and the college’s talent strategy became a national model for admissions.
In keeping with his meteoric rise, in 2015 Lugo became vice president for college advancement at Colby College, where he successfully launched the largest-ever fundraising campaign for any liberal arts college. In just two years, the campaign raised $415 million, increased annual fund revenues by 46 percent, and increased overall fundraising seven fold. During this time, Lugo also co-authored a task force report that became the foundation for Colby’s diversity, equity, and inclusion plan.
Fifteen years after rejoining academe, in 2019 the former political science major was unanimously selected to take the helm as president of Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the search committee praised his proven visionary leadership, innovative resource development, and enrollment management. Lugo is currently leading the school through the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented time in higher education history.
Susannah Morgan ’91 • Distinguished Achievement
After a quarter-century working to end hunger, Susannah Morgan ’91 continues to fight to eliminate the root causes of hunger amidst one of the greatest hunger challenges in a century: the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout. Hailed by nominators for developing an innovative approach to combating food insecurity, Morgan focuses on a three-tiered approach that is centered on securing clients’ immediate food needs today, solving longer-term problems for food for tomorrow, and addressing issues of systemic inequality to ensure there is enough food for all.
Morgan, a Japanese major at Carleton, began her career at the San Francisco Food Bank before moving to Boston to earn her MBA in nonprofit management from Boston University. Since then, she has worked with Project Place, a homeless services agency in Boston’s South End, and as Executive Director of Food Bank of Alaska. In 2012 she moved to Portland, Oregon to join Oregon Food Bank as CEO. Morgan is also involved with Feeding America, the national network of food banks, where she has had a national impact, including: leading a team to start a food bank in Las Vegas; working on the front lines of Hurricane Katrina response teams; and as trailblazer for incorporating equity, diversity, and inclusion in food banking. At Oregon Food Bank, she is known for building authentic relationships with people and communities who have been marginalized and uses her role to elevate voices of people of color. Additionally, she and Oregon Food Bank hosted the national Closing the Hunger Gap conference to bring together organizations and activists to develop a national movement to end hunger.
On an international scale, Foodbank Victoria in Australia reports adopting her client-centered approach to great success. And in 2017, Morgan was honored as Feeding America’s Network Leader of the Year.
Maggie Bowman ’96 • Distinguished Achievement
As an award-winning documentary filmmaker, Maggie Bowman ’96 is both a storyteller and change-maker. An American Studies major at Carleton, Bowman interrogates the narrative of the American dream in her work, drawing on lessons learned from Professors Barbara Allen, Harry Williams, Annette Igra, Rich Kaiser, Leigh Kane, and Rick Salafia. In 2019 she collaborated with Kartemquin Films, The Marshall Project, and Illinois Humanities to co-direct and produce We Are Witnesses: Chicago, a series of short films about people affected by the criminal justice system in her hometown, which was nominated for an Outstanding New Approaches: Documentary Emmy award. In 2016 her 6-hour series Hard Earned, which focuses on American families struggling to get by on low wage jobs, won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award after its domestic and international broadcasts on Al Jazeera. Following its success, Bowman received a fellowship at the University of California-Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program to research the student debt crisis. In 2007, Bowman produced Election Day, which followed a dozen Americans during the presidential election of 2004, revealing flaws and triumphs in the nation’s democratic process.
Beyond her work directing and producing films, Bowman is a noted advocate for other filmmakers. She is an active member of the Documentary Producers Alliance and former co-chair of its Labor and Economic Stability committee. To this and other activism, she brings expertise from her former work as a union organizer working on behalf of taxi drivers, nurses, and home health aides.
In 2020 Bowman further led her field by directing the International Documentary Association’s biennial Getting Real conference. Amidst unprecedented changes with moving the conference to a virtual format due to the coronavirus pandemic, the conference attracted over 3,000 industry professionals from 54 countries. Bowman led efforts to increase conference accessibility for disabled filmmakers, create spaces for community-led programming, and design five days of sessions around the themes of access, power, and possibility. Under her guidance, the conference was hailed as an inclusive, interactive event that has advanced today’s documentary industry.
David W. Callaway ’96 • Distinguished Achievement
Few global disasters have popped up in the past decade that David Callaway ’96 hasn’t had a hand in mitigating. From the Ebola outbreak in East Africa, to the Syrian refugee crisis, to the COVID-19 pandemic, Callaway has provided emergency and medical expertise all over the world. Following his graduation from Carleton as a biology major, Callaway earned his MD from Georgetown University and joined the military, where he served as a battalion surgeon and senior medical officer with the U.S. Marine Forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom. As one nominator writes, “Dr. Callaway’s service to his country … is what ensured service members like me returned home alive.”
Later, Callaway earned a master’s degree of public administration in national security studies from Harvard and was awarded the Zuckerman Fellowship to study leadership, adaptive systems, and disaster response. A year later he was awarded a Truman National Security Fellowship, and in 2013 he was named an Eisenhower Fellow to work in Jordan on healthcare systems and public policy innovation during times of crisis. Currently, Callaway is a professor of emergency medicine and the Chief of Crisis Operations and Sustainability for Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina. This extensive work in health and security prompted his appointment as a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 2015 Callaway joined Team Rubicon, a nonprofit organization of veterans providing humanitarian relief to global emergencies, as its Chief Medical Officer. Under his guidance, Team Rubicon became the first NGO in North America to earn the World Health Organization Emergency Medical Team Type 1 Mobile Verification. Above all, Dave is a father to Elizabeth and Lilianna, and husband to the amazing Jennfier Callaway. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Mario L. Small ’96 • Distinguished Achievement
Mario L. Small ’96, an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on the study of networks in urban settings. Known for his groundbreaking books Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio, Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life, and Someone to Talk to, Small is the only scholar to have twice won the C. Wright Mills Award. He has also received the Robert Park Best Book Award, the James Coleman Best Book Award, and a Choice Outstanding Academic Title designation, among others. His articles on qualitative methods have been cited numerous times.
Small is currently the Grafstein Family Professor of Sociology at Harvard; previously, as the dean of the division of social sciences at the University of Chicago, he spearheaded initiatives that increased support for students, generated new resources for faculty research, seeded programs in urban and in computational social science, empirically assessed the institutional climate for students and for faculty of all backgrounds, and substantially expanded the division’s reserves. He has been a trustee of the National Opinion Research Center and the University of Chicago Charter School and a board member of the Spencer Foundation. He is currently on the board of the Russell Sage Foundation and of the International Network for Social Network Analysis.
Small has advised practitioners and policy makers in the private sector, in the administrations of several major cities, and in the U.S. Congress; served as expert panelist under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and testified on social capital and inequality before the U.S. Senate. A sociology/anthropology major from Carleton, he holds an MA and a PhD from Harvard.
Evan Sallee ’06 and Niko Tonks ’06 • In the Spirit of Carleton
In founding and successfully operating Minnesota’s first ever co-op brewery, Fair State Brewing Cooperative, Evan Sallee ’06 and Niko Tonks ’06 embody the community focus and collaborative practice that are crucial to the Carleton spirit. Their dream of opening a brewery began at Carleton, where Sallee spent several years trying to convince Tonks to care about more than just the price of beer. It wasn’t until almost a decade later that they realized they could achieve that dream without giving up their ideals through a co-op model. In 2014 they opened Fair State Brewing, forging a unique relationship between the brewery and its Minneapolis community.
As CEO and Founding Brewer, respectively, Sallee and Tonks are keen to include the consumer in their process and give back to the community: Elected co-op board members have a say in strategic goals and decisions, co-op members have had input in recipes, and Fair State members vote on community partners to donate a portion of the brewery’s profits to through their Cooperates program. Recently these partners have included the Minnesota Freedom Fund, Sexual Violence Center, Save the Boundary Waters, Black Visions Collective, and the Minnesota Prison Doula Project. Noting that their success wouldn’t be possible without their coworkers, in 2020 Sallee and Tonks acknowledged the unionization of the Fair State employees, becoming the first unionized microbrewery in the United States.
Sallee graduated from Carleton as a political science major and went on to earn a JD from Northwestern; Tonks graduated from Carleton as an American studies major and later earned a master’s degree in American studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Tonks is married to Sinda Nichols ’05.
Jeffrey Bissoy-Mattis ’16 • In the Spirit of Carleton
Already a successful entrepreneur in both traditional and cutting-edge media, Jeffrey Bissoy-Mattis ’16 lives out the ambitious and passionate spirit of Carleton every day. After graduating from Carleton as an American studies major, Bissoy-Mattis grew into a multimedia journalist who is well-versed in podcasts, radio producing, writing, researching, and speaking. He has produced and narrated several documentaries and podcasts, including “With Friends Like These” for Crooked Media, “American Prodigy” with soccer analyst Grant Wahl, and “On Being” with Krista Tippett. Bissoy has worked as a paralegal, and is a former fellow, producer, and reporter for American Public Media (Minnesota Public Radio and The Current).
Ultimately, however, Bissoy-Mattis, one of three Black journalists at MPR News and The Current, felt frustrated at the company’s failure to meet its diversity and inclusion goals, lack of visibility of African American artists and creatives on the radio and web, and overall poor storytelling of the Twin Cities’ Black communities. So, he ventured out on his own, creating a media start-up called The Plugged App, which places African American content, stories, and narratives front and center. Combining technology and media, The Plugged App cultivates a digital space where Black creators, entrepreneurs, and consumers can enjoy a shared experience.
As CEO of Plugged and a natural networker, Bissoy-Mattis, who now resides in Mexico City, has enlisted several Carls to help shape the app as they work toward a summer 2021 launch. Despite early internal challenges with staffing, external challenges caused by a global pandemic, and worldwide civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd, and now Daunte Wright, in his hometown, Bissoy-Mattis has remained committed to his vision for Plugged and to using his intellect, skills, and passion to improve the world around him through the empowerment of Black communities.
Khuaten Maaneb de Macedo ’16 • In the Spirit of Carleton
With bold and selfless action, Khuaten Maaneb de Macedo ’16 defines commitment to the community. In the summer of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world and protests erupted throughout her own city of Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd, Maaneb de Macedo, grounded in her dream of becoming a doctor to care for those who are most vulnerable, jumped into action to help where she was needed. While taking her third-year courses for medical school, half online and half in-person due to the pandemic, she took to the streets as a volunteer medic to treat protestors and bystanders who had been tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets. She also worked around the city to deliver supplies and food donations to communities most impacted by the protests.
Maaneb de Macedo also helped to organize a rally at the capitol building in St. Paul. The rally focused on acknowledging the discriminatory and problematic history of the medical field and served as a call to action for all healthcare providers to strive for health equity and to do better for patients of color. She then teamed up with a group of her high school classmates to tackle issues of racism at her alma mater in hopes of making the school a more diverse and non-discriminatory place. Maaneb de Macedo continues to work on DEI initiatives, most recently working in a consulting role with Lexington Writing Firm to improve the DEI website for the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Maaneb de Macedo, a Carleton biology major, understanding the continued impact of COVID-19 on POC communities, remains involved by volunteering on the distribution team of Mask Up North Minneapolis, an organization currently distributing masks to families in North Minneapolis, an area severely impacted by COVID-19.
Lastly, Maaneb de Macedo has shown passion and dedication for bringing more minorities, especially women of color, into the field of medicine. She has been a mentor to several pre-medical students. She also sits on her school’s Student National Medical Association board; her work there was integral in starting a physician mentoring program, pairing minority medical students with physicians of color.
Maaneb de Macedo is currently completing clinical rotations at various hospitals in the Twin Cities. She will graduate from medical school in May of 2022.